Francis Pigott ( 1665 – 15 May 1704) was an English Baroque composer and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

Career

He was a

choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honora ...

at the

Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also appl ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from at least August 1678 to

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...

1683. A record at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pr ...

shows a "Mr Pygott, the organist at St John's" and although there is no other evidence that he was employed there, he may have replaced Bartholemew Isaack who left the college for

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in late 1684. Pigott was appointed organist at Magdalen College, Oxford in January 1686 and returned to London to play the Father Smith organ at the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

in 1688. On the death of

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest En ...

in 1695, Pigott received an "extraordinary" appointment as organist at the Chapel Royal, and was finally sworn in as the First Organist on 24 March 1697, after the death of William Child.Shay, Robert and Thompson, Robert (2006)
''Purcell Manuscripts: The Principal Musical Sources''
Cambridge University Press (p. 312)

Works

Pigott has been tentatively identified as the manuscript copyist known as "London A" by his handwriting and by his known association with

and other notable composers of the time. Pigott also collaborated with John Blow, William Croft and Jeremiah Clarke in the production of ''A Choice Collection of Ayres for the Harpsicorde'' (London, 1700). His

setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to ...

of Abraham Cowley's poem ''The Separation'', appears in a compilation called ''The Banquet of Musick'' published in volumes between 1688 and 1692. Pigott's setting of the

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...

, '' I was glad'', was sung at the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of o ...

of Queen Anne in 1702; it was also used at the coronation of King George I in 1714 and was probably the setting intended for that of King George II in 1727 but was omitted on the day by mistake.

Family

It is believed that Pigott was the son of Francis Pigott (1614 to 1694), who is mentioned as a musician in the diary of

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no marit ...

, and his wife, Elizabeth ''née'' Lawson, who were married in 1664. The younger Francis Pigott married Anne Pelling in 1688; their son, John Pigott, succeeded his father as the organist at the Temple Church in 1704. John's son, another Francis Pigott, was organist at

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the G ...

until 1756.West, John E (1899)
''Cathedral Organists Past and Present''
Novello & Company, London (p. 132)

Scores

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pigott, Francis 1665 births 1704 deaths English Baroque composers English classical organists British male organists Composers for harpsichord Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal 17th-century classical composers English male classical composers 17th-century male musicians Male classical organists 17th-century English composers